Progress

Still reading and analyzing interview notes and other material I've collected. Themes are starting to emerge that I'll be able to summarize soon and have "new stories" and lessons of success and failure for students.

I took a quick trip to San Diego this weekend with the family. As we was made our way through the various attractions and eateries, I couldn't help thinking how similar small business success stories really are, and the universality of such core principles as great customer service, excellent quality of product/ services, atmosphere, attitude of owner/ employees, etc. A neighborhood bookstore with a unique combination collectible books with current inventory along with bindery services caught my eye. I started a converstion with the owner and could tell immediately that the bookstore held a unique position in the local community. Customers felt at home and felt connected --- in my 30 minutes or so in the bookstore, I could already fell that this is a small business I would definitely frequent. Right next door, a family owned Greek restaurant where the owner was the chef, cashier, waiter, etc. I felt we had been invited into someone's home where food was prepared specifically for each person in our party. Another interesting and unique business, and there were many on this strip was a vintage clothing store that featured one of a kind outfits from the 1920's-1950's... talk about a narrow niche in the market place.

It was similar in La Jolla, in Coronado Island and all over San Diego. Small businesses still open for business as usual, operating successfully, serving customers, employing other people, albeit in small numbers... all the while the newscasts kept blasting away the latest unemployment statistics, the latest "bad news" about WallStreet and everthing else that seemst to attract an audience. On top of all that, 73 degrees!!!

Interviews & Analysis continue

Great inteview with Alonzo Russell of A.L. Russell & Associates in Gilbert. Another great referral from the folks at the Gilbert Economic Development Center. We discussed a number of topics related to small business success and how his firm has prospered. A.L's background included time spent as a financial planner and helping clients with estate planning and other financial issues. He sold his practice and decided to start a small business / medical practice consulting firm. His staff of 5 offer a variety of services to a wide range of small businesses but his focus remains the small 1-person medical pratitioner. Alonzo is also heavily involved in the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce as Chair of the Small Business Council. I gathered lots of useful information on his firm has remained successful in addition to an expert view on why small businesses fail.

Still planning to interview Joe from Joe's BBQ... scheduling problem continues....

Interview with Tri-Lite Builders

What a great interview with company president Linda Minde. Here's an example of a company that does well by doing great things in the community. From a remodeled bathroom for an individual with limited mobility to a home for a family through Habitat for Humanity, Tri-Lite Builders has really earned the numerous awards it has received over the years. I walked away with a great case study of a successful woman-owned business who fundamentally "changed an industry."

New Appointment

Confirmed appointment with A. Russell, business coach and consultant in Gilbert. Looking forward to the meeting on Monday. I checked out his company's website and although it has some interesting items, I'm wondering how focusing on the medical practice segment has helped the company. Also still reading the two books I mentioned below and continue making progress analyzing the previous interviews.

Progress..

Interviews went well last week. Only one little glitch with my appointment with Joe Johnston. I'm rescheduling for next week. I received another contact from John Zupon at the Gilbert Economic Development Office -- looks interesting. It's Alonzo Russell, a business coach / consultant focusing on medical practices. The rest of the time, I'm spending time going over the interviews, identifying theme, common patterns of reasons for success / failure. I'm also reading when I get some free time, the Billion Dollar Lessons and How the Mighty Fall. Both excellent background material for the project. Click on the titles for more!

Interview with Diversified Energy

Met with Dave Thompson, CEO and President of Divesified Energy in Gilbert. Dave was the founder of Spectrum Astro in Gilbert. He built the company into a medium sized venture that ultimately was bought out by General Dynamics. Dave was also the recipient of Enterpreneur of the year at the national level. A wealth of information, wisdom and valuable insight that needs to be shared with my students this coming year, Dave will be visiting one of my business classes in fall... More in the final analysis.

Two Interviews!!

WOW.. a busy day for sure. In the morning I spent over an hour getting to hear an inspiring entrepreneurial story from Phil Hoffman, CEO and President of Alphagraphics in Chandler. At first, I thought, big deal, a copy shop on a larger scale, just like Kinko's... wait, what happened to Kinko's? FED-EX happened. Anyway, I digress. Phil offered a wealth of information on starting a business, what it takes to succeed and how he has managed to create an impressive group of businesses that work very well together. With family members involved in the business, Phil has a great story.

In the afternoon, I had the pleasure of meeting James and Jeannette Duffield of Western Air International in Gilbert. What an amazing husband and wife team. Over 40 years of a successful marriage and a string of business successes that today's entrepreneurs can only dream of. A strong believer in the wisdom of Warren Buffet, James shared his insight and knowledge of what it takes to be successful in life and in business. Both love sharing their expertise and their life experiences and both opened their doors wide open for me to see what has made them so hugely successful, not just in their various business ventures but in their marriage, in the community and in the world. Tomorrow, I get to meet a friend of the Duffields, Dave Thompson of Diversified Energy. More tomorrow.

Interview with Steve Mora...

The interview with Steve Mora of Valley of the Sun Mortuary on Friday was excellent. I learned a great deal about the industry, competition, how those that operate and succeed have learned to do business very differently... major focus on customer service and amazingly, we spent most of the time talking about how this business involved with "the living" as opposed to what I figured we'd be dicussing. Valley of the Sun focuses on educating potential clients about the need for planning ahead and what's involved in ensuring that loved ones aren't burdened when someone dies. What was interesting is the various programs aimed at high school students aimed at "keeping them from becoming clients." Fascinating discussions and great insight. We also spent quite a bit of time on what makes this business successful. In a word, excellent customer service.

Great Interview with Mary Contreras of State Farm

Amazing discussion with Mary Contreras, Owner/Agent of a State Farm Office. Talk about energy, ideas, enthusiasm and drive. Smart woman who reached the glass ceiling in corporate, packed it up and started her own agency 15 years ago and has become a powerful force in the local business community. We spent an hour talking about her background, personal philosophy about success, business, entrepreneurship and lots of other topics. She's truly passionate about helping others and it shows in how she runs her business, the people she hires, decisions she's made along the way. Great suggestions for students who want to learn more about entrepreneurship and owning their own small business. Excellent discussion on reasons why businesses fail... lots of good common sense that will show up in my final analysis.

On the way out, she introduced me to a fellow with another interesting entrepreneurial story. I'll write about that one soon when we meet next week. Great progress today. Tomorrow, two more interviews with some very interesting folks --- Phil Hoffman of Alphagraphics and James Duffield of Western Air.

Interview on Friday, more next week

The questionnaire is complete and includes sections on the entrepreneur, the business, industry, competition, marketing, and some interesting questions on why they think their business remains successful. An interesting comment from one of the business owners --- "successful business" is probably taking on a new meaning these days --- Survival! Interesting comment. I'm wondering how the entrepreneurs will respond to the question.

First interview tomorrow morning. Got the questions ready. Picked up a voice recorder to capture important points that I might miss as I'm taking notes and engaging the respondent in the conversation. 6 or 7 more interviews lined up for next week!! I'm trying to not over-kill with this project. I'm finding that setting parameters and establishing some boundaries is going to be essential. Because of my enthusiasm for learning more about what's going in the area with entrepreneurs, I tend to overcommit and am turning this into a year long study.... Speaking of overkill, I came across a couple of books that are so timely for this project. One is by Jim Collins, the guy who wrote Good to Great. He did an other study on businesses who failed. The title is "How The Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In." The other is "Billion Dollar Lessons by Carroll and Mui." Both focus on the subject of this study - business success contrasted with business failure. Why do some fail (or Fall as Collins says) and others succeed. Hopefully I'll gain a fresh perspective at the end of the project.

5 New Appointments

Great response from small business folks! I lined up 5 interviews so far starting this Friday. Many of the small business owners seem eager to help and are excited in sharing their stories. The survey instrument is almost ready- I'm reorganizing it to maximize the information gathered in a short time frame.

Appointments made and research moving along

Amazing how much information is available on the companies I'm planning to interview. I have a several excellent leads from the Gilbert folks. I have an interview with a couple of the most prominent and successful entrepreneurs in Arizona and am really looking forward to hear what they have to say about what it takes to remain successful. For the businesses on the Chandler side, the main task at this point if making appointments and gathering basic information prior to the interviews. Entrepreneurship is alive and well in the SE Valley!

The list of businesses to interview is growing

Worked from home quite a bit today. In addition to the 25 Chandler business names from last week, I'm also picking up a nice list from businesses from my contacts in Gilbert and surrounding areas. I'm hoping to line up my first interview this week and will call the business owner tomorrow. Prior to the interview, I'm doing some home work... nothing worse than showing up to interview a business person and asking questions to which answers are all over their company website. This particular company has a great deal of information on their website about projects, technologies they've created, awards and recognitions, etc. The CEO is also widely known and has had a great deal of press on his achievements as well.

Once I go through the materials and continue tweaking my survey instrument, I'll be ready to begin the study. I'm also working on the research methodology and have decided to use a simple quantitative and qualitative approach for this study. The quantitative portion will focus on items such as industry, basic demographic data, number of employees, approximate revenues, etc. The qualitative portion will be in-depth interviews that I'll conduct with the CEO or company founder.

25 business names and lots to do!

Early in the morning, I met with JSmith of the SBDC. Great meeting, lots of ideas and suggestions. JS will send me a list of recommendations based on the criteria I gave him. We also discussed some possibilities for future research and ideas for offering seminars / workshops aimed at furthering business success. John agreed to create a list of businesss and send a letter of introduction letting them know that I'll be following up next week for an appointment.

Mid morning, I met with Charlotte of the Chandler Chamber. She was very excited about the project and saw all kinds of possibilities involving additional research that would benefit the chamber. We discussed possibly publishing the results and maybe joining a discussion where we would share the findings. We spent a good deal of time reviewing chamber membership for some good candidates that I can interview. She and I developed a nice list of excellent local businesses that she feels confident would be willing to participate in the study. I now need to wrap up the research instrument and plan for collection of the interview data.

Day 3 - Great contacts made

It's been a hectic week but I've made some excellent progress. I've identified a number of key players in the business community that are eager to contribute to the project. It's interesting to note that small businesses are indeed supported and respected by our local chambers and municipalities. Something that Dan Henderson told me is starting to make alot of sense. His staff spends a a majority of their time assisting small businesses. However, assisting a small restaurant or manufacturing company obtain capital financing isn't necessarily "newsworthy" so no one really knows what's going on behind the scenes. What gets newspaper coverage is obviously landing a large corporation that employs hundreds.

As I plan for interviews in the upcoming weeks, it will be interesting to hear from small business owners whether they feel supported by their chambers and economic development agencies.

Late this afternoon I met with my first small business contact, a financial planner formerly with Merrill Lynch. He's on his own, still associated with ML and now BofA, but in his own agency. We discussed a number of topics but one item in particular is worth nothing. When we started talking about business success, he told me that he is actually doing better this year than he did last year while many of his counterparts have stuck their head in the sand and have done everything wrong. So what did he "do right" to do better and thrive in what one would expect would be a dead business (investing in the stock market, financial planning, etc). What this fellow did was step up his efforts and started to increase contact with his clients. He told me about one of his clients who called and said, "I just lost $40,000! The market is crashing and I'm in a panic." Clearly the blame was the financial planner-- it was his fault this particular client has lost what appears to be a great deal of money. After some refocusing, calming down and lots of reassurance (basically hand holding), the client realized that he had in fact not lost more than $2300.00. The point was that his method of dealing honestly with clients, calling them and explaining what was happening and by working with them to reprioritize their portfolio, not only did he keep all this clients, he picked up 5 or 6 new clients, valued at several million dollars. While the other financial planners avoided their angry and scared clients, this guy did just the opposite-- he made himself available and worked closely with each of them to let them know that "things will be fine." Another interesting side note is that he actually instructed his clients to stop watching the daily bad business news that kept reporting that "this is the worst day in the history of Wall Street."

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with an SBDC Consultant and with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce.

Day 2- more initial contacts and blog

I have appointments with a counselor from the SBDC, John Henry Smith for Friday. I've asked for his assistance in identifying potential small business owners who might be good candidates for the project. Right away, he came up with a few names that he thinks would be good to study.

The blog is up and running and I'm thinking how I'll incorporate this in my Small business classes in the fall. I do plan to make this blog available to students along with the findings from my research. It is my hope that they'll follow the research model I'm creating with this project.

I've also made contact with our Workforce Development Director, Dr. Romano for her input. She has valuable contacts in the business community and will be able to also provide input that will help with the study. Additionally, I've made contact with Charlotte at the Chandler Chamber to enlist her assistance in identifying good candidates for the study.

At home, I've contined to work on refining the set of questions I'll be using to interview business owners. The more contacts I make, the more exciting this project becomes. I'm really looking forward to the actual interviews and the results of the study.

I was able to confirm my appointment with Charlotte at the Chandler Chamber. I'm eager to meet with her to discuss the project and get some recommendations for folks to interview.

First steps --- making contact with networks

I'm utilizing contacts I have in the Chandler and Gilbert areas to identify at least 20 small businesses that would be willing to participate in the study. I met with Dan Henderson, Economic Development director for the Town of Gilbert. We had a very productive meeting where we outlined a number of steps I'll be taking in moving the project forward.

Tomorrow I plan on making initial contact with the folks in Chandler.

Welcome to my Blog

This is an MCLI grant funded project that will allow me to learn more about how the economic recession has impacted local small businesses. In particular, I am studying how some small businesse have managed to remain in business while others have failed. I'm looking to identify strategies successful businesses use to retain current customers and attract new ones.